DR1 Travel News - 17 January 2017

Polo Challenge at Casa de Campo
DATE to take place in May 2017
Samaná whale and turtle festivals
Day Dream Festival in Punta Cana

Polo Challenge at Casa de Campo
The second season of the Polo Challenge 2017 is happening at Casa de Campo Resort & Villas in coordination with Lechuzas Caracas from January 14th to April 15th. The Lechuzas Caracas team was the winner of the 2016 Azimut Cup. The event positions the Dominican Republic as one of the four destinations of high handicap polo. Others are Glass of the Queen, England; Sotogrande, Spain and Palm Beach, Florida. The 2017 Polo Challenge finals will be broadcast live on ESPN worldwide.

Highlights for 2017 is the Charity Polo Day with the presence of Adolfo Cambiaso, who is recognized as the best polo player in the world. Likewise, in 2017 for the first time in the country, an exhibition of women’s polo will be played.

Polo Challenge organizers stress the level of the competition with the participation of the best organizations and players of polo in the world. The players confirmed for the Polo Challenge 2017 are: Juan Martin Nero, David Stirling, Ignacio Novillo Astrada, Frederick Mannix, the Santiago brothers and Ignacio Toccalino, and Francisco Bensadón, among others.

DATE to take place in May 2017
The most important event for the Dominican Republic tourism industry, the Dominican Annual Travel Exchange (DATE 2017) will take place this year from 3-5 May 2017 at the Barceló Bávaro Convention Center in Punta Cana.

The event is organized by the National Hotel & Tourism Association (Asonahores) and sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism. The business exchange matches international wholesalers, tour operators, incentive groups, airlines and charter operators with the Dominican Republic’s leading suppliers. To register, see http://www.drdate.net

Samaná whale and turtle festivals
Samaná province is hosting the 6th Whales Festival (27-28 January 2017) and Quelonios Warm Up (29 January 2017). The activities seek to raise local awareness of the conservation of the seas and its biodiversity. They are sponsored by the Caribbean Program for Marine Biodiversity that is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

As part of the Whales Festival, this year, on Friday, 27 January a humpback whale statue will be unveiled on the Samaná Malecón, the bay-facing city boulevard. There will be artistic presentations and a 3D mapping.

On Saturday, 28 January, there will be activities for young people, including a paint contest and a children’s rally. A panel on humpback whales will be held, a cooking show, folklore ballet presentation and more artistic presentations in the evening.

The Quelonios Warm Up on Sunday, 29 January seeks to create awareness of the importance of preserving the marine turtles in the country and avoiding the contamination of their habitat, the Caribbean Sea. This event will take place at Playa El Valle. A panel with biodiversity experts from the Foro Ambiental de Samaná, Ecotopía, Cebse, and others will participate. There will be sports events, yoga, gastronomy events and music, and artistic presentations.